These chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies are the perfect cookie with a soft and moist center, melty morsels of chocolate, and crisp edges. It’s the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need because it’s classic—not fussy, complicated, or time-consuming.
There’s no need for refrigeration, special tricks, or complex cooking techniques to get the best chocolate cookie. Our foolproof, classic recipe tastes exactly how it should—insanely delicious. After all, it’s the incredible flavor and easy-to-make recipe that keeps traditional desserts like Gingerbread Cookies, Banana Bread, and Baklava so popular for ages!
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Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
My high school used to sell the best chocolate chip cookies at lunchtime. They were soft, thick and irresistible. With this cookie recipe, I sought to recreate that memorable texture and this recipe takes me back to the days when I saved up my quarters for the rare treat of the cafeteria cookie.
There is no match for homemade chocolate chip cookies with chewy and soft texture, gooey chocolate chips, and the sweetest aroma coming from your oven. As America’s most loved cookie, they are perfect for every occasion, whether you’re making Christmas cookies, comforting a neighbor, or surprising your kiddos with a sweet after-school treat.
Just like with Chocolate Crinkle Cookies or Christmas Sugar Cookies, everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, so here’s why this one is a keeper:
- The cookies stay soft for days
- Easy, straightforward recipe with tips to make it foolproof!
- No resting/refrigerating time—so you can satisfy your craving immediately
- Pantry staple ingredients
- True to the classic flavor everyone loves
- Stores and freezes well
- Make ahead option to always have dough on hand
Chocolate Chip Cookies Video
In this video, Natasha shows you how easy it is to whip up a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. *Note that we updated the recipe and now use 1 tsp of baking soda because we loved the results even more.
Ingredients:
The best chocolate chip cookie recipe is made with pantry and refrigerator staples—nothing fancy or hard to find here.
- Unsalted butter – room temperature butter creates the best consistency to trap air for a chewy, airy dough with the best texture and rise.
- Granulated sugar – white sugar adds sweetness without adding moisture for the perfect spread
- Brown sugar – molasses keeps the cookie moist, soft, and chewy. Be sure to press the sugar tightly into the cup when measuring
- Eggs – room temperature eggs mix more evenly to bind the dough
- Vanilla extract – store-bought or homemade vanilla extract gives that classic chocolate chip cookie flavor
- All-purpose flour – be sure to measure correctly to get the right amount: fluff with a spoon and then scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Finally, scrape off the top. Be sure not to pat the flour down
- Baking soda – sift to eliminate clumps
- Salt – balances the sweetness of the sugars
- Chocolate chips – we prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use milk chocolate or bittersweet chips for a slightly different taste. See our buying guide below – be sure to use the full amount because they add moisture and give good form to the cookies
Pro Tip:
If you don’t have time to let the butter come to room temperature, try this trick to soften the butter quickly, because it makes a big difference.
How to Buy Chocolate Chips
Chocolate chips come in different varieties. Here’s what to look for:
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips (46%-60% cocoa): the traditional chip for chocolate chip cookies. You can use full-size or mini chips, chunks, or even chopped chocolate. Nestle, Tollhouse, Ghirardelli, Guittard, Kirkland, Hershey’s….they all work!
- Milk chocolate chips (10% cocoa): these make very sweet cookies, so have your glass of milk ready. Try mixing with semi-sweet.
- Bittersweet chocolate chips (70% cocoa): less sweet and intensely chocolatey. These produce a more “adult” cookie.
Substitutions
It’s easy to make these cookies your own. You’ll need 2 cups of mix-ins, so if you’re feeling adventurous, try some of these fun alternatives to chocolate chips:
- Peanut butter chips
- Sprinkles
- Butterscotch chips
- M&M candies
- Macadamia nuts
- Chopped unsalted peanuts
- White vanilla baking chips
- Shredded coconut
- Pretzel pieces – the options are endless!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
It’s so simple to mix up this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe with pantry staples and no refrigeration is needed.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Cream the butter and sugars together for 5 minutes until light and fluffy—this is the most important step to get a chewy cookie. Be sure to beat for the full amount of time!
- Beat eggs into the butter mixture one at a time followed by the vanilla extract.
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sifted baking soda) in a separate bowl, and then add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in thirds. Finally, fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Be sure not to over-mix (this can cause the dough to become tough).
- Roll balls of dough or use a trigger release scoop to scoop 3 Tbsp balls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 minutes. The tops should still look a bit wet and not browned. We usually bake 1/3 of the cookies at a time and refrigerate or freeze the rest for later, so see our tips below.
- Rest the cookies on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Store cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 5 days. To warm the cookies, try toasting in a toaster oven or baking at 350 for 2-3 minutes.
Pro Tip:
For a prettier cookie, press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of each cookie dough ball just before baking.
Common Questions
Room temperature butter and eggs, beating the butter and sugars thoroughly, and not over-mixing create the best cookies! No need for fancy techniques, because the best chocolate chip cookies are easy to make!
These homemade chocolate chip cookies spread perfectly without flattening.
Over-baking is the #1 cause of hard cookies, so remove them before they brown, when the edges are just turning golden. The top should still look a bit raw.
Once baked, store the cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft. You can even place a piece of bread in the container to maintain moisture.
Usually, cookies go flat when a recipe doesn’t include enough flour. Be sure to measure the ingredients correctly. Also, check to be sure your baking soda is still fresh by placing 1 tsp baking soda into a cup with a splash of vinegar. It should fizz, but if it doesn’t, replace your baking soda.
This usually means you use too much flour. Be sure to fluff and spoon your flour into a dry ingredient measuring cup, and don’t pat it down. Also, be sure not to make the cookie dough balls too large, or they may take longer than the cooking time to spread in the oven.
Make-Ahead
Our homemade chocolate chip cookie dough is refrigerator and freezer-friendly, so you can always have dough on hand. To make a few days ahead, mix the dough as directed and store:
- To Refrigerate: put dough into an airtight container, or cover rolled dough balls on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, and then bake as usual. It may take 1-2 minutes longer if starting with chilled dough.
- To Freeze: Scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Then, once the dough balls are frozen, store them in a freezer zip-top bag until ready to bake.
- To Bake: thaw in the refrigerator and bake as directed. You can bake from frozen, but the cookies will take a few more minutes to bake.
You will love these homemade chocolate chips with melty chocolate, a chewy cookie center, and an irresistible aroma. Our easy recipe uses pantry staples without unnecessary techniques! Grab a glass of milk because this will soon become your go-to recipe!
More Cookie Recipes
If you love this chocolate chip cookie recipe, then you won’t want to miss these other delicious cookie recipes.
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Shell Cookies
- Cranberry Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, (16 Tbsp), softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 1 tsp baking soda, sifted
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, (12 oz), divided reserving 1/4 cup for the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat liner. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. Beat 5 minutes on medium/high speed until creamy and light, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition, scraping down the bowl as needed, then beat in 2 tsp of vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp of baking soda (sifted to eliminate lumps). Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter in thirds, mixing to incorporate with each addition. Fold in 2 cups of chocolate chips.
- Use an ice cream scoop to get even balls of dough (3 Tbsp each). Place scoops of dough onto lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Mine fit onto 3 cookie sheets and made 26 cookies. Roll balls lightly with your hands then stud tops of cookie balls with reserved chocolate chips. Bake right away or cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 min at 350˚F (we bake 12 minutes), until edges are just turning golden. The tops should still look under-baked. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet 5 min then transfer to a rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Baked these cookies tonight and they were absolutely fantastic!!! Seems there are many comments regarding flour measurements. For more consistent results, measuring the flour by weight would help. I am a sourdough bread baker and measure all ingredients by weight. Thanks for the great recipe!!
Hi Debra, thank you for the wonderful review! I agree it is best but not everyone has a scale. Although, we do have a metric button in the recipe card that does the conversion to grams. I think many folks miss that this feature is even there. It’s just a clickable word – maybe I should convert it to a button? Thanks again for the great review. I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Ah yes! I see it now! Thanks muchly!
Hi Natasha,
I made this cookies and came out nice and delicious like yours
Thank you now I can see the conversion in gram which more accurate. I like this better than cups …
Thanks for sharing your recipes I really enjoy it and always works well with me.
Love you,
Lily
Hi Lily, I’m happy to hear that conversion was helpful! Thank you for the great recipe review.
I just made your chocolate chip cookies and they are delicious can’t wait to make them again
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Hi Natasha,
I want to make the batter and pop it in the fridge for 2 days prior to baking. Is that possible? Or should I freeze and thaw out before baking. How long can you keep the batter made into cookie balls or deformed dough in the fridge.
Hi Sehrish, The great thing about making a big batch of cookies is that you can freeze half of the cookie balls and bake them another day so you only have to bake one cookie sheet. I’ve done this before and it’s awesome to have cookies when my son requests them without having to go through any kind of process. We store ours in an air tight container for a few days.
Can I replace the baking powder with baking soda? Or does that make a difference according to recipes.
Hi Leticia, I haven’t tested this recipe with baking soda and it most likely won’t work because there is nothing to activate baking soda. Hope this helps
I have just made a batch of these cookies. They’re delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it
I tried the cookies it is so yummy! Do you have a cookie recipe with oat?
Hi Mona, I have one but still need to photograph them. Stay tuned 🙂
Hello,
I am a big fan of yours but I was reading the recipe and I saw 1 cup of butter. I assumed that this was the correct measurement. Despite the fact that you put 2 sticks, I still went by the recipe that said 1 cup. I do not know what the measurement of 2 sticks of butter is where you live. My cookies completely flattened and do not taste good. I think you should change that for people in Canada who do not know what the measurement of 2 sticks means.
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. What a bummer! I hoped that adding both measurements as well as metric conversion would clarify and not confuse the measurement. I went ahead and replaced the 2 sticks with 16 Tbsp.
Do I need to make any changes for high altutide baking? I live at 6500 feet. Thank you!
Hi Terry, since I don’t live in a high altitude area, I really don’t have any experience with high altitude baking and there’s no way for me to test it. You might do some research on google to see what changes are required for baking cookies in high altitudes. Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful!
Terry, I live at 5000 ft and didn’t make any changes to the recipe. I do agree with Natasha about being precise with the flour measurement. I thought I measured correctly by using the measuring cup, but then decided to use my scale and found that I was over by almost half a cup. That being said, by following the recipe and being at high altitude, the cookies turned out yummy!
Hello. It seems my consistency is not the same. I think it was the eggs. The recipe calls for large eggs. I have extra large. Would that be the culprit? Mine doesn’t look as set as yours. What would you suggest, since all I had was the extra large eggs? More flour? More of something else? I’m open to your ideas.. Thanks. Tiffy
Hi Tiffy, that may possibly be the culprit. I’d have to experiment to tell you for sure but you may need to add more of a dry ingredient. Something I found on Google that you may find helpful “5 large eggs = 4 extra large eggs”
Do you know why mine came out dry and not moist? They are soft though and taste is not bad despite the dryness
Hi Vi, the most likely culprit is too much flour. When measuring flour, be sure to use dry ingredient measuring cups (that can be leveled at the top) and spoon the flour into the measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you scoop the measuring cup into the flour bin, you can get up to 25% too much flour which would affect how the cookies spread. Here’s our post on measuring that will help with that.
If I wanted to make a chocolate chip cookie that was more crispy than soft, do you have a suggestion for me to do this with this recipe? Is it just leaving them in the oven longer or an adjustment to the ingredients? Thanks..love your recipes and presentation.
Hi Loria, I would just bake them an extra 2-3 minutes or to the desired doneness to dry them out more.
Hello. These cookies look amazingly delicious. For some reason my cookies didnt turn out like yours. They are more firm and puffy. I also used a cookie scooper. I measured everything the same except I only had 1.5 cups of chocolate chips and my butter had salt. My eggs werent room temperature. Any idea where I could be going wrong?
Hi Chantal, small changes like the eggs not being at room temperature may cause that to happen.
I followed your recipe and they turned out so perfect! My grandsons get excited when I bake for them and we all love this recipe! Thank you SO much for sharing…This is our new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Kathi. I’m all smiles!
Hello Natasha, My mom found your wonderful recipe and shared it with me. I changed the recipe and got an amazing, soft, chunky cookie with much less fat. Only mix using a spoon or fork, no electric mixer is needed. I wish I could upload a photo as it looks very different than yours. I have made the recipe many times the past few weeks, everyone loved them! It comes out the same each time. Here is my recipe, including mom’s secret ingredient keep them soft:
1. Dry ingredients: same as yours, except 2 ts baking soda rather than baking powder. Mix together with a fork.
2. Wet ingredients: same as your except only one stick butter. Use one stick melted butter brought to room temp. Add two pre-wisked room temp eggs. Add brown sugar, mix. Add white sugar, mix. Add vanilla mix.
3. Add wet to dry and mix in somewhat. Add 1 cup MILK chocolate chips and 1 cups white chocolate chips, mix well. (Semi-sweet makes the cookie taste bitter.)
4. Add two heaping tablespoons of plain yogurt! This gives the batter a wonderful, cookie-perfect consistency.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, place heaping mounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes at 350F. Only loosely gather the batter, do not pack it into the spoon. Importantly, they should be baked until they are faintly browned, otherwise the taste is ruined by the baking soda.
My cookie looks so gourmet and has an amazing taste, even for a person like me who dislikes sweets lol!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Hi Natasha
I just made the cookies and followed your recipe exactly. I just did not have light brown sugar and replaced it with dark brown sugar.
I need some help as they did not turn out very good. (compared to some store bought frozen cookie doughs I baked in the past).
1- My cookies did not get flat. Although I was careful not to pack the flour. I loosened the flour with a spoon and spooned it into the cup measurement. And scraped off the top with back of a knife.
2- The cookies had a slight cake like sponginess to them.
3- And I think the dark brown sugar made them more sweet or somehow the sweetness is just different. I used semi sweat Giradelli chips.
Please let me know what you think I shall do different next time.
thanks
Hi Norman, did you use the same type of flour (unbleached, all-purpose)? It sounds like there is still too much flour. Did you use a dry ingredients measuring cup and level off the top?
I think I found out the reason. Looks like I lost some of the butter that I had softened.
I melted the butter too much so I put it in the freezer to cool and it had spilled in the freezer. So I basically used 1 and 1/2 stick of butter in the recipe. I still have not baked 2/3 of the dough. I think I will incorporate 1/2 stick of butter into the remaining dough and bake. thanks for really creative videos and excellent recipes.
The absolute best. They are so easy, soft, and totally delicious. This time when I was making them I ran out of vanilla, so I used half a teaspoon of vanilla and half a teaspoon of almond extract. Oh my lordy, was it absolutely scrumptious. Just added that little something extra and it was divine!!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Hi Natasha! I love all the recipes you post. I want to know what to do with the chocolate chip cookie recipe after I have frozen half the dough. Do I defrost or put directly in the oven? Thank you for your advice.
Hi Theresa, I would let them thaw in the fridge first then bake. Let me know how they turn out
Baked cookies for the first time ever and they came out fab I didn’t have an electric mixer so I whisked the first by hand. I did put the butter in the microwave for 40 secs to make it easier to mix.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Claire!
I have a question. If you use salted butter how much salt do you need? Or is it the same amount as mentioned?
Hi Keren, salted butter should work but yes, hold off on adding the extra salt.
Perfect recipe! Thanks
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Natasha. Just wondering how many grams would 1 cup of butter be? Thinking to make your chocolate chip cookies which look yum
Hi Vanessa, If you click “Jump to recipe” at the top of the post it will take you to our printable recipe where you have the option to view the ingredients in US Customary or Metric measurements. I hope that helps.
Thanks for the tip Natasha. Will try making on the weekend
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy this recipe.
Hi, if using Canadian flour, how much would I use? Thank you
Ok
Hi Tanya, I haven’t used Canadian flour, but typically you would need less I believe since Canadian flour has a higher gluten content.
Hi, how much flour if using Canadian flour?
Hi Tanya, I haven’t tested with that to advise but I imagine it would be pretty close to the same amount. If you experiment, please let me know how you like that recipe.